Musings of a Kaiba
by BonesDon'tMelt
Summary: Joey and Kaiba share one thing: a traumatic past. They deal with their pasts very differently: Kaiba becoming cold and distant, Joey being cheerful and outgoing. Kaiba's thoughts on Joey's coping mechanism. Not slash, but I guess it can be if you really want.


Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction.

I thank the Guest reviewer, and I switched out a few "Mutt"s like you suggested. Your input is appreciated!

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Seto Kaiba sat back in his seat, staring out the window of the little coffee shop. He had picked this seat specifically for where it looked; right into the park, where Joey always hung out.

He didn't like the mutt, he never would, but as time went on he began to question why he hated him so much.

Was it due to low intelligence? Well, the blond was undeniably dumber than himself, but then again everyone was. In fact, Joey was actually a lot smarter than he let on.

So it wasn't that.

Perhaps it was because the mutt was weak? No, out of the question. He was many things, annoying, loud, emotional, but he was also one of the strongest people Seto had ever met. Not that he would ever admit it out loud.

So it wasn't that.

It could have been that he was the only one Seto knew of that would openly go against anything and everything he said. Everyone else was either too scared, respected him too much, or both. Seto would admit to being a control freak, but the opposition was refreshing sometimes. He liked yelling at someone who would yell back for a change; even employees who had already been fired treated him with stale respect.

So he enjoyed that.

Maybe it started when the mutt was rude to him? No, he had been rude first. If he remembered correctly, and he never remembered incorrectly, the other boy had been ecstatic to hear that he played duel monsters and wanted to duel. He had made a snide comment. So he started disliking Joey before that. Usually he would have either just ignored the other person or shot them a condescending smirk, so what had made him comment?

It was something else. Something that he could tell before knowing the blond, because that had been the first time they ever talked.

Ah, that was it. It was the way he acted.

Joey Wheeler was the happiest, most cheerful person Seto had ever had the displeasure of meeting.

And to make it worse, all of his so-called success was from luck. Luck and being pulled along by Moto. Why should the mutt get an easy way through life and still be so happy-go-lucky while he worked so hard for everything he had and was forced to keep up an emotionless façade? And he did have to; he would never make it in business without one. No one listened to Seto Kaiba the teenager; only Seto Kaiba the ruthless businessman.

So why was he staring out this window, watching Joey from afar?

Well the answer was simple. He, and he was loathe to admit this even silently, had been wrong.

It had started a few months ago, when Seto had noticed bruises that did not come from their fights. At first he shrugged it off as some street fight the mutt got into, he did used to be in a gang, but something was bothering him. Those injuries just didn't seem right, and the more Seto actually looked at the blond, the more he realized that he wouldn't get into street fights like that. The only people Seto had ever seen Joey get actually angry at were himself and people who directly hurt his friends.

So unless he beat a gang off of Yugi every week, those bruises were from something else.

He decided to follow him one day. Not actually himself, mind you, his time was much too precious to follow a mutt. But he was curious, and so sent one of his most discreet employees (not Roland, he was loyal but he was not discreet) to tail him and report everything.

The information came fast, and Seto had trouble believing it.

Joey lived in the slums, in the worst apartment in Domino. No surprise there.

He also lived with a man that Seto's spy assumed was his father, who was a useless drunk who didn't seem to have a job. That was a bit of a surprise, but it explained the crappy apartment.

Then was the real surprise. The mutt seemed to work two jobs, neither of which he allowed to stop him from going to school. That didn't fit with Seto's image of him at all.

Was he paying for that crappy apartment himself? Where were the bruises coming from? What had happened to his mother, and hadn't there been a sister too? Where was she?

Absolutely hating himself for it, Seto had investigated. Again, not him directly, at least not physically. He did do a lot of research on the computer though.

What he had found made him look at Joey clearly for the first time.

Joey's mother and father had divorced when he was a child, both blaming him for it. He had not been able to see his sister for years, and even now his mother was trying to keep her away. Joey's two jobs and drunken father, which he had shrugged off as a temporary situation at the time he first found out, had been in place since Joey had quit the gang. His father, it was now clear, was also abusive.

And still, Joey smiled.

It was amazing. Seto could put on a smile and pretend as well as anyone else, but Joey was beyond pretending. His smile was real, it could be seen in his eyes.

And Seto just didn't understand.

How could the mutt be so happy all the time, even when he currently lived in poverty with an abusive father? How could he smile when his sister was taken from him? What was his secret?

So he was watching, waiting for a moment, waiting to see. Whether it was the moment that Joey finally cracked and couldn't lie to himself any longer, or the moment when Seto found out how he did it, it didn't matter to him.

One way, he would know it was normal, what he did. He was normal to cover up his pain, and even that dumb blond couldn't hide behind a smile forever. The other way, maybe, just maybe, he could try it out. Whatever it was that Joey did, he could see if it worked.

Maybe he could be happy too.

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First thing I've ever posted. How did I do? Feel free to offer constructive criticism, but don't just insult my writing. Tell me what you don't like, why, maybe a way to make it better. Danka!


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